Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks eBook

“Allow me to cancel part of my indebtedness
to you,” said Rosa, in a low, sweet voice, and
Quincy again thought how pleasant that voice would
be to Alice when Miss Very was reading to her.

As Rosa spoke she handed Quincy a two-dollar bill
and seventy-five cents in currency.

“I owe you an explanation,” she continued.
“Mr. Ernst told me that I must be ready to accompany
you the moment you called, so I packed and strapped
my trunk last evening. When I returned from breakfast
this morning I looked through my pocketbook, and found
to my surprise that I lacked a quarter of a dollar
of enough to pay for my week’s lodging.
In my haste I had put my jewel case, which contained
the greater part of my money, in my trunk, and I realized
that there would not be time to unpack and pack it
again before your arrival. I offered Mrs. Colby
the two seventy-five, and told her I would send her
the balance in a letter as soon as I arrived at my
destination. To my astonishment, she refused
to take it, saying that she would have the three dollars
or nothing.”

“If I had known that,” said Quincy, “she
would have got nothing.”

“Oh! it’s all right,” remarked Rosa,
with a smile. “I know the poor woman has
hard work to make a living, and I also know that she
has lost considerable money from persons failing to
pay at all or paying part of their bills and then
not sending the balance, as they promised to do.”

“And did she get up all that ugliness for a
quarter of a dollar?” inquired Quincy.

“Oh! that wasn’t the reason at all,”
replied Rosa; “I’ve always paid her promptly
and in advance. She was mad because I was going
away. If she lets the room right off she will
get double rent this coming week, for it so happened
my week ended last night.”

“Lodging-house keepers,” said Quincy,
“seem to be a class by themselves, and to have
peculiar financial and moral codes. Here we are
at the station,” he added, as the carriage came
to a stop.

As Quincy handed Rosa from the carriage, his observant
eye noticed that the hand placed in his was small
and well-gloved, while the equally small feet were
encased in a pair of dainty boots. “She
is true to her French origin,” he soliloquized,
as they entered the station,—­“well-booted,
well-gloved. I am glad she is a lady.”

The train was soon on its way to Eastborough.
It was an accommodation, and Quincy had plenty of
time to point out the objects of interest on the way.
Rosa was not a lover of the country. She acknowledged
this to Quincy, saying that she was born and educated
in the country, but that she preferred paved streets
and brick sidewalks to green lanes and dusty roads.

Alice had not waited for Quincy’s return to
broach the matter of the gift of the Putnam house
to Ezekiel and Huldy. She had simply asked Quincy,
so as to assure herself that there was no legal objection
or reason why she should not make the transfer.